


In the Zone

by lackluster_lexicon



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, M/M, Plot What Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-28
Updated: 2012-01-28
Packaged: 2017-10-30 05:58:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/328518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lackluster_lexicon/pseuds/lackluster_lexicon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper performs an experiment and discovers the secret to pulling Tony out of his work moods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Zone

**Author's Note:**

> This was so much cuter in my head.
> 
> Movie!verse. Pepper-centric. Mostly just establishing my Tony/Pepper headcanon.

Pepper watched Tony where he sat on the couch, well within his line of sight. Or she would have been, anyway, if he would allow himself to see anything other than the tablet in his hands. He was clearly in one of his moods when he wasn’t going to leave the couch until he finished whatever he was working on, but at least this one was relatively minor. He wasn’t locked in the basement, anyway.

She considered trying to pull him out of it, but she knew he wouldn’t listen to her. Hear her, maybe, but not listen. Since joining the Avengers, the only person he listened to was Director Fury, and then, only when the mood suited him.

…wait. That wasn’t true. There was someone else.

She pulled her phone from her purse and texted the rest of the Avengers, smiling to herself: _Avengers, assemble. Living room. No talking. Time for an experiment._

\---

The Avengers entered the room silently, and Pepper took a moment to appreciate that an entire superhero team had followed her vague text message to the letter. When Bruce arrived, she gestured them around her. She looked pointedly at Steve and put a finger to her lips, indicating that he in particular remain silent.

“Thank you for coming. I know this is odd, but for the sake of scientific investigation, I want to try something.” She made eye contact with each of them in turn. If they were confused, they didn’t show it.

“Clint, call for Tony.”

He quirked his eyebrows but complied.

“Hey, Stark.”

They watched intently, but if Tony noticed them enter or heard either Pepper or Clint, he didn’t react.

Pepper looked to Thor.

“Mr. Stark?”

Tony rubbed a hand over his face, but that could just as easily have been because he hadn’t slept in thirty-one hours.

Bruce and Natasha tried next, but the closest they got to a reaction was a flaring of Tony’s nostrils when Natasha spoke. Maybe he had subliminally flashed back to the needle in the neck – Pepper smiled to herself as she recalled the entire conversation she had forced Tony through, demanding that he explain the whole “I’m not dying and by the way Natalie is a super-spy” thing – but he was also prone to making faces when he worked. He also usually talked to himself, but he may have passed that point somewhere around hour twenty.

Pepper’s turn.

“Anthony Stark,” she said sweetly.

Tony held up a finger but didn’t break his gaze from the tablet.

“Hold on, _Virginia Potts_. Almost done. And don’t call me that; you sound like my old man.”

Finally, Pepper turned to Steve. He arched his eyebrows.

_Didn’t we just get an answer?_

Pepper responded in kind. _Just do it. Trust me._

Steve shrugged.

“Tony.”

Tony jumped and looked up. His eyes were wide, his lips parted, in an expression Pepper remembered too well. Granted, their romance had fizzled almost before it had begun, but before they came to their senses, he had looked at her like that every time she’d walked into the room. Her heart fluttered at the memory, but not so much ruefully as nostalgically. After all, the split had been mutual: she couldn’t support his antics as Iron Man like he needed her to, and he couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t do something stupid like she needed him to. She knew he needed this, that in some way Iron Man had saved him from himself, and so she could never bring herself to ask him to stop; and he knew that she deserved better than to worry about him, which she would do anyway even without the added “significant other” pressure, and that he (and the world) needed Iron Man more than he needed to resolve his loneliness. Besides, he wasn’t really _that_ lonely – Pepper had stuck around. Or so she had told herself before the Avengers initiative had finally come together.

Plus, Steve filled a void she couldn’t, and for that she was grateful. She loved Tony, and she knew Tony loved her, but Pepper needed stability and Tony needed someone who would not only support him but could keep up with him. And Steve could. Steve could watch him in the field, stay up with him into all ungodly hours, even wear him out enough in training to get him to sleep through the night. And what’s more, Steve didn’t aim to change Tony, didn’t resent Tony’s eccentricity the way Pepper had come to (though in the most endearing way, of course). He genuinely liked Tony just the way he was.

Maybe that would be a problem later. Pepper would be the first to admit that Tony had some quirks that needed adjusting, if you asked her, and Steve could end up enabling Tony. But she could sense somehow that if Steve thought Tony was being self-destructive, he wouldn’t hesitate to pursue the problem. He loved Tony too much to let him spiral.

The look, by the way, lasted only a moment. His mouth snapped shut as he jerked back, clearly registering everyone else’s presence for the first time. He scanned down the line from Thor to Clint and back again before returning his focus to Steve, who smiled. Tony smiled back, not even bothering to look back to the group even as he spoke to them.

“When did _you_ all get here?”


End file.
